IKEA's Research Lab Is Exploring The Future Of Meatballs

Fact: No IKEA is complete without at least one plate of Swedish meatballs. It's part of what makes the home furnishing wonderland so magical.

But as good as they are, those delectable little spheres may be getting makeover.

According to Dezeen, IKEA's research lab, Space10, has been hard at work imagining what the future of furniture store food — namely, meatballs — could be.

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With the UN reporting that food production will need to increase 30 percent by 2050, Space 10 launched an experiment called Tomorrow's Meatball, which yielded a series of eight different meatball alternatives that they say could be a solution to the growing need for new food sources.

Keeping up with demand will mean looking beyond meat, however, so Space10 incorporated some interesting new ingredients into IKEA's go-to dish, including insect protein, algae, and artificial meat, to name a few.

Space10

So what exactly do we have to look forward to? Well, there's the Artificial Meatball, created from an animal-flesh product grown inside a laboratory, for starters. Also on Space10's radar is 3D-Printed Ball and a Crispy Bug Ball, which is, of course, made out of insects.